Morning Update: Enemies of Prosperity

Jul 26, 2016

Last week, the owner of a 24-hour restaurant in New York City — “one of the last classic Brooklyn diners” — decided it was time to close. For good.

Larry Georgeton says the new minimum-wage law was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” He can’t afford to pay cooks the $15 an hour the law requires on top of rent increases and expensive Health Department inspection fees.

His decision wasn’t made out of anger. About the fast-food workers who protested for the higher minimum wage, he says: “God bless them.” But he simply can’t handle the new wage law. He ran the numbers. To stay in business, he’d have to raise the price of a hamburger from $6.45 to $9. He explains he wouldn’t do that to his loyal customers.

Food industry experts say this story is not uncommon. For the few diners that are still operating, the new law makes the current business model impossible. So you can expect more closures.

Liberal Democrats think business owners have an endless supply, a big pile of it behind the door, of money to pay employees and comply with costly regulations. They don’t. Time and time again, these government rules kill jobs, and the tax base of their cities dwindles.

It’s not just Brooklyn. It’s every state and city where Democrats rule the roost. Democrats are the enemies of prosperity. And, for too many of us, the enemies of the American dream itself. Ask them in Seattle about the minimum wage and restaurants if you don’t believe me.